The High Road

What Road Are You Traveling?

A thought for today. When you look at life from the window of your soul, you realize that there is a duality of all men that is in constant struggle. There is always a choice between paths.

For this writing we will call the choice the high road and the low road to follow the poem at the end.

Moral decisions that are based around the positive energy of caring, love, honesty, understanding etc are made on the high road.

Whereas the moral decisions that don’t quite measure up lying, cheating, intolerance, rigidity, hate or judgment are found on the low road.

It has always been peculiar that there is no middle ground in most cases. Either you are traveling the high road or the low road the middle road is like riding on a picket fence, hard to get there and harder to maintain your balance.

Sometimes the choices are easy, and doing the right thing is clear, and beneficial to you. Sometimes, unfortunately the low road is the far easier choice, and looks like it will be so beneficial to you that you just can’t resist the urge.

“I’ll only do this just this once.” you say, with a froth of good intentions on your mind. But it’s a funny thing about traveling the low road, once you get on it it is harder to get back up than we ever might imagine.

The high road, may indeed at times appear difficult, I wish I could say that I always clung to it. I haven’t and have paid the price dearly. As I get older, though, I strive for the high road, more and more. In almost everything I do.

I am not perfect, but strive for it. You don’t have to be perfect to be honest, treat people well and not be a jerk.

Remember that we are all living an existence of duality, and the struggle is constant between good and evil, right and wrong, the high and the low. Be vigilant and you might just stick to the high road. No matter what happens you are guaranteed to learn something.

To every man there openeth A way, and ways, and a way.

And the high soul climbs the high way, And the low soul gropes the low:

And in between, on the misty flats, The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth A high way and a low, And every man decideth.

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10 thoughts on “The High Road”

It’s the high road for me… the peaks, and the crags, the spines, and the passes… the going is rough, it takes a lot more work, but the view is incredible. The payoff is worth the effort. Oh, how I wish that were completely true. I, like you, strive for that… but sometimes it just seems so much easier to walk along the smooth valley floor, to take the low road. Sometimes, that’s just too tempting to pass up. (Sorry, couldn’t help the backpacking analogy.) I like to imagine a world where we all take the high road, but in the absence of that I applaud the efforts of those who at least strive to stay on that jagged edge of a path, and I do what I can to help them up when the fall, just as I hope that people are around to help me up when I fall. Great post, JD.

Matt, I really like that backpacking analogy! It was a good one and makes the point, that it isn’t always easy, or popular to take the high road, but “the view is incredible”. Well put, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Nice one!!! Had to think of Isaac Asimov “Don’t let your sense of morals get in the way doing what’s right” yet what is the right thing anyways?

And what if the highroad will leave more people hurting than the low road? Which road is the better one then?

I like the highroad but it’s a a very exhausting climb.. and sometimes I wonder if it worth to give up so much just because it is the right thing to do but then again if it’s not right you probably wouldn’t be doing it since every path is the right path.

Thank you Purni!! Always so great to see your smiling icon. You are awesome. I think that for me striving to do the right thing is the best anyone can do. The right thing wouldn’t lead to hurting more people than not doing the right thing I don’t think. The high road can be a very exhausting climb, and it is easier to do some of the other things, but if you are not willing to make the effort to do the right things then you can’t be too upset if the results are not what you would have liked to see. What you put into anything is going to lead to the result. If you are doing something you know is right, what are you giving up? You are awesome my friend, I appreciate the thought.

Great post and wonderfully apt analogy, Jonathan. It also reminded me of my favourite Robert Frost poem – “The Road Not Taken”.

What I have come to realise in life is that we always have a choice. Our lives are a direct result of the choices we have made. There are some universal laws that we should all adhere to:
– Treat other’s how you would like to be treated
– Always put yourself in someone else’s shoes before you judge them
– Be true to yourself
– Be honest
– Be compassionate
– Cruelty is not an option
– Be open-minded
– Trust your instincts
Not an exhaustible list by an means.:)

Thank you B.G. There is that influence of Robert Frost on this, and surprise, surprise that is one of my favorite poems as well. I wrote about it once a long time ago on here, I will include the link if I can find it. I loved your list as well. thank you so much for commenting, it makes made my day. I think each thing you mentioned could be a blog post. Thank you so very much!